Health Care Deal Tonight?

July 16, 2009

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Thursday that he hopes to have a bipartisan deal on a health care reform bill by the end of the day.

He made the remarks after huddling for about two hours with five Finance Committee members most closely involved in the negotiations. It was the first time Baucus acknowledged a time frame for reaching an agreement.

“We are meeting very aggressively today,” Baucus said of the bipartisan
group, which plans to meet again at 1:30 p.m. “We will keep meeting all day long. I hope we can reach some kind of agreement by the end of the day, but having said that, it depends on what kind it is."

As
the other Jonathan has been saying, getting an agreement on financing
health care is the big stumbling block. So an agreement in the Senate
Finance Committee, which will necessarily involve financing, would be
enormously important.